Why Did Ali lose his speed and reflexes after his layoff?

Yep, noticably, although he was still clearly a great fighter. The funny thing about Ali is that we pretty much missed his peak as a fighter due to his ban, yet he's still recognised almost universally as the greatest Heavyweight of all time.

 

He didn't lose his speed and reflexes, they just weren't on the same level as they had been before. You can still see he has blindingly fast hands in his fight with Jerry Quarry.

He fought differently when he came back from exile. He wasn't moving as consistently so he was in range to be hit. His legs weren't quite what they were, obviously.

 

No....

But he lost his work ethic, he was not the same kind of machine in training.

His body never EVER looked the same after his lay off.

Muhammad Ali treated training, pretty much like Chris Eubank did.

And his oponents...!!

 

He did not lose that much speed, reflexs were stilll there. Reason for speed was he got a bit more muscle on him, natural maturing. His layoff was not so bad for him, he trained, had exhibitions, was in gym reulary, and mad emoney giving speeches at events and colleges. Tyson's layoff was bad one, no sparring, no training, nothing for 3 years.

 

I'd think age would be a factor in part, but with that style of fighting it would be difficult to come back at the same level after such a layoff. When you rely on your reflexes even a slight dip can make all the difference.

Also was he any heavier at all after the layoff?

 

The main thing that suffered were his legs. His movement and stamina were never quite the same. This is what will happen to any top athlete. Fat Ronaldo is a good example, before and after his injury problems.

 

When one's irony is starting to get so subtle that it almost fades out, you know you've been on the forum for a looong time.:smooch

 

Agreed. Ali always looked great in the early rounds in the 70s, it's just that he recognized that he no longer had the ability to keep up such movement for each minute of the round. He admitted it was difficult even in his prime. See the Norton rematch for example. Perhaps he also got more defensively lax after realizing that he took a great punch.

 

He may have had the odd sparring session during his unjust,enforced lay off,but there's no substitute for real fighting. He did reach 80% of his pre exile self,imo,by 1972.

 

I think its simply a case of not training and fighting with the regularity that he had been doing for the previous,say, 9/10ys. To keep up the level of fitness Ali had, and needed, for his style, required top notch fitness. Once thats stopped, its very hard to regain

 

He put on a fair bit of weight in those years though didn't he?

That will make you slip when you lose it, especially being rusty and, arguably, facing better opposition in the 70s as well (not that his 60s opposition is anything to be sniffed at of course :yep)

 

constantly boxing/ training everyday since he was 12 to 25 then take a 3 1/2 year break and try and get back to your peak. name me someone who's done it? look at prince naseem & hatton - they realized how difficult it really is to even try and make a comeback after a long break. tyson had a similar break and did well to comeback but they're not as good as they were before. george best in football took a break and he got nowhere near being the same player when he cameback (drink didnt help lol). this is reality talk is cheap on this subject. tyson in 88 would kill the 90s version and ali 67 was the best version.